The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- Satellite image suggests North Korea has restarted Yongbyon nuclear reactor - U.S. group
- Putin says U.S. strike on Syria could escalate conflict
- China should pursue 'high-quality' urbanisation - top economic planning body
| Satellite image suggests North Korea has restarted Yongbyon nuclear reactor - U.S. group Posted: WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Satellite imagery suggests North Korea has restarted a research reactor capable of producing plutonium for weapons at its Yongbyon nuclear complex, a U.S. research institute and a U.S. official said on Wednesday. U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies said a satellite image from August 31 shows white steam rising from a building near the hall that houses the plutonium production reactor's steam turbines and electric generators. "The white coloration and volume are consistent with steam being vented because the electrical generating system is about to come online, indicating that the reactor is in or nearing operation," said the Washington-based institute. The reactor can produce 6 kgs (13.2 lbs) of plutonium a year, the report added. There was no immediate comment on Wednesday from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N. nuclear watchdog. A U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity said he believed the North Koreans had restarted the reactor, saying that the amount of steam suggested that it was being tested. The official said he did not think the North may have done so to force major powers to resume nuclear talks with Pyongyang in the hopes of extracting concessions, but rather to demonstrate that it will not abandon its nuclear programs. "It's more straightforward than that," said the official, saying that North Korea "wants to create a fait accompli and be accepted as a (nuclear) power and nuclear weapons state." "They've no interested in bargaining this away," he added, saying that the only way to counter the North's action would be to "raise the cost to them of taking this path, and increasing multilateral pressure, with China an active participant." AGED REACTOR A spokesman for the State Department's Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs declined to respond the report, citing a policy of not commenting on intelligence matters, but said Pyongyang's "nuclear program remains a matter of serious concern." The spokesman repeated Washington's longstanding call for North Korea to comply with a 2005 aid-for-disarmament agreement signed by North Korea, its neighbours and the United States. Under that pact, Pyongyang would have dismantled its nuclear program in exchange for economic and energy aid. North Korea has conducted three nuclear tests since 2006. "Acknowledging that we are not completely certain yet, this is very disappointing but not at all unexpected," James Acton, an analyst for the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a Washington think tank. "It's not unexpected because we've been able to see for months through satellite imagery that North Korea has been working on repairing the five-megawatt electric reactor," he said in a telephone interview. Pyongyang announced in April that it would revive the aged Yongbyon research reactor that yields bomb-grade plutonium but stressed it was seeking a deterrent capacity. "ANOTHER SLAP IN THE FACE" Nuclear experts said at the time it would probably take about half a year to get the reactor up and running if it had not suffered significant damage from neglect. The Yongbyon reactor has been technically out of operation for years. In 2008 the North destroyed its cooling tower as a confidence-building step in the six-nation talks. "Restarting it is another slap in the face to the international community, indicating that North Korea has no intention whatsoever of abandoning its nuclear weapons," Acton said. North Korea said in July it would not give up its nuclear deterrent until Washington ends its "hostile policy" towards Pyongyang, although it was ready to revive nuclear talks. The country tested a nuclear weapon in February and spent the first three months of 2013 issuing bellicose threats including a warning that it would launch a nuclear attack against the United States and South Korea. Recently, however, Pyongyang has been on what analysts describe as one of its periodic charm offensives, agreeing with Seoul on Wednesday to re-open a shuttered industrial park on a trial basis. The Kaesong industrial zone lies inside North Korea and was closed when Pyongyang pulled its 53,000 workers out in April amid rising tensions. The Johns Hopkins report was released as U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Policy Glyn Davies was on the Tokyo leg of a September 8-13 tour of South Korea, China and Japan for consultations on policy toward Pyongyang. (Reporting by Paul Eckert, Arshad Mohammed and Frederick Dahl in VIENNA; Editing by Cynthia Osterman) |
| Putin says U.S. strike on Syria could escalate conflict Posted: WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Wednesday against a U.S. strike on Syria, saying such action risked escalating the conflict beyond that country and unleashing terrorist attacks. Writing in the New York Times, Putin said there were "few champions of democracy" in the 2-1/2-year-old civil war in Syria, "but there are more than enough Qaeda fighters and extremists of all types battling the government." He repeated assertions by his government and Damascus that an August chemical weapons attack that the United States blames on President Bashar al-Assad's government was likely the work of opposition forces seeking to provoke foreign intervention. President Barack Obama wants to hold Assad accountable for the suspected attack in a Damascus neighbourhood on August 21 that U.S. officials say killed about 1,400 people, including 400 children. Obama said in a speech on Tuesday that he had asked Congress to put off a vote on his request to authorize military action in Syria to let diplomacy play out around a Russian proposal to put Syrian chemical weapons under international control, although he said the threat was still needed to ensure Syria complies. Putin cautioned against taking military action without U.N. Security Council authorization, saying, "We must stop using the language of force." "The potential strike by the United States against Syria, despite strong opposition from many countries and major political and religious leaders, including the pope, will result in more innocent victims and escalation, potentially spreading the conflict far beyond Syria's borders," Putin wrote. "A strike would increase violence and unleash a new wave of terrorism," he added. "It could undermine multilateral efforts to resolve the Iranian nuclear problem and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and further destabilize the Middle East and North Africa. It could throw the entire system of international law and order out of balance." Putin said it was alarming that intervening militarily in foreign countries' internal conflicts had become "commonplace" for the United States. "Is it in America's long-term interest? I doubt it. Millions around the world increasingly see America not as a model of democracy, but as relying solely on brute force, cobbling coalitions together under the slogan 'you're either with us or against us.'" Putin also rejected Obama's assertions of "American exceptionalism," saying: "It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional." Russia has been Assad's most powerful backer during the civil war, which has killed more than 100,000 people since 2011, delivering arms and - with China - blocking three U.N. resolutions meant to pressure Assad. On Tuesday, Syria accepted the Russian proposal to surrender its chemical weapons to international control to try to win a possible reprieve from a U.S. military strike. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke by phone on Wednesday, the State Department said, one day before they are due to meet in Geneva to try to agree on a strategy to eliminate Syria's chemical weapons arsenal. Saying his "working and personal relationship with President Obama is marked by growing trust," the Russian leader said, "I welcome the president's interest in continuing the dialogue with Russia on Syria. "We must work together to keep this hope alive, as we agreed to at the Group of 8 meeting in Lough Erne in Northern Ireland in June, and steer the discussion back toward negotiations." (Reporting by Peter Cooney; Editing by Mohammad Zargham) |
| China should pursue 'high-quality' urbanisation - top economic planning body Posted: BEIJING (Reuters) - China must plan scientifically for "high-quality" urbanisation that is human-oriented and energy-saving, a senior official at the country's top economic planning agency said in remarks published on Thursday. China's leaders have an ambitious plan to boost the urban population by 400 million over the next decade, a key plank in a reform effort to restructure the economy away from credit and export growth to one where consumers provide the main impetus. Zhang Xiaoqiang, vice head of the National Development and Reform Commission, also said China's urbanisation level, at about 52 percent of the population, still has a long way to catch up with that of developed economies and even some Asian countries. "Our urbanisation should embody the concepts of green, intensive, intelligent and low-carbon and it does not mean simply building things or enclosing land," he said in an interview at the World Economic Forum in the northeastern port city of Dalian that was posted on the NDRC's website. His remarks echo those of Premier Li Keqiang, who told a recent meeting of experts on the subject that urbanisation should focus on quality of life and the environment and should be driven by job creation. The NDRC has said it will unveil an urbanisation plan in the second half of this year. Zhang added that China has the necessary means to maintain a relatively high growth rate in the future, considering the domestic demand potential to be released from urbanisation. He also reiterated that Beijing would speed up efforts to deepen reforms in energy prices, the financial sector and fiscal and tax systems to better allocate resources and narrow the wealth gap in the country. (Reporting by Aileen Wang and Jonathan Standing; Editing by Michael Perry) |
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